Light reflectors for roadway applications have been in use for many years. Reflectors define roadway lanes and turn lanes to name some applications. Other uses include roadside stakes having reflectors to define road shoulders. What is apparent, is that roadway technology has long embraced the use of light reflectors, in a variety of applications, to help drivers navigate roadways and to avoid obstacles, especially at night.
What is less apparent, are light reflectors which can be attached to temporary roadway structures such as temporary road stakes and cement barriers. These temporary structures, especially in the case of temporary cement barriers, often called “Jersey barriers”, can present formidable dangers to drivers if they are not illuminated. Cement barriers are used extensively to divide lanes, define road shoulders, and divert traffic and often, especially at night, their presence does not register in an average driver's mind until the last few seconds when a vehicle's headlights illuminate the barriers.
American Molded Plastic of Newton Falls, Ohio offers a cement barrier reflector which is combined with a bracket that is glued onto a cement barrier to provide reflective capability. However, glue application is messy and requires specialized glue application tools. Also, if the reflectors are glued to the barrier top surface, this negates stacking barriers on top of one another for storage, lest the glued reflectors be broken off, necessitating re-gluing when they are used again. Moreover, these glue-on style barrier reflectors cannot be used in any other temporary roadway structures, such as road stakes, to name one example
A need therefore exists for a light reflector which can be applied to temporary or permanent roadway structures which does not necessitate the use of glue, brackets, or complicated tools for attachment. Additionally, a need exists for a light reflector that is capable of attachment to more than one roadway structure, thus allowing flexibility in helping to illuminate a variety of structures for increased safety.
The foregoing reflects the state of the art of which the inventor is aware, and is tendered with a view toward discharging the inventor's acknowledged duty of candor, which may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing discussion does not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventor's claimed invention.